Clee Hills Trial

Adrian Marfell wins in a Class 6 Beetle. The provisional results had Sam Holmes as the winner but these were revised when Adrians penalty on Gattens Gamble was scrubbed.

Sam and Mick Holmes get out of shape on Flounders Folly on their way to coming close to winning the Clee Hills Trial (Photo by Dave Cook)

With many events struggling for entries the Clee organisers were rewarded by well supported car entries in all the classes except for FWD. They were boosted by a Class 0 that omitted some of the rougher sections and motorcycles for the first time.

The Clee organisers are well known for being innovative and returning Clerk of the Course bought back their twin loop system where classes set out on different loops with the objective of finishing the event in daylight.

Classic Trial organisers are always looking for an effective handicapping system to give all classes a chance of an overall win. To this end 6-8 had a few different hills to 1-5. That is normal for the Clee but this year they also employed a score receiving system.

To quote “On three of the toughest hills tackled by all (Priors Holt 1, Flounders Folly, Easthope), the score for the highest climber in Class is considered to be the ‘End’ and all other scores in the class are reduced. Thus Dean Partington was the highest climber on Flounders Folly so his 2 is reduced to zero and all the others in his class have 2 marks deducted from their score. Dave Jackson’s 7 gets reduced to 5.”

This seemed to go down well as did the sections where popular opinion was it was a tough trial that wasn’t too rough.